A recipe for beer excellence!

It’s the last day of April and so it is time to wrap up Belgian beer month. This didn’t quite go how I expected it since I didn’t do the best of jobs this month keeping this thing running on a recurring basis. I won’t even begin to address what happened last week.

This could be the start of the best beer party ever.
(Original here)

Weekly beer links are taking a week off; instead I’m going to write a bit more about the “why” of Belgians beers. Brian talked a bit about the Trappist and monastery influence on brewing and that has had a lasting presence and impact on how Belgian beers are viewed, consumed and copied.

That is only half the story though. Frankly Charlie Papazian has said it best in his Joy of Homebrewing, “Belgium is the Disneyland of beer.” If you look on the shelves of your favorite beer store you’ll find that you can’t really argue with that. Not only is there a wide variety of different Belgian beers but there is a depth and nuance that didn’t exist in other parts of the world with few exceptions.

This is because, simply put, Belgian beers are the result of taking staunchly independent regions and cities, fertile land for grains, easy access to good water, well traveled trade routes, major ports, fiercely competitive brewers who cling to tradition and then you throwing them all in an area of less than 12,000 square miles. Add into stew the lack of any “purity laws” and you have a recipe that yields wildness and excellence in equal measures. This is a place that produces over 1100 different types of beer in a country roughly the size of Maryland. Beer is in the blood and has been for many centuries. 

The best part of all this though is that Belgian beers have been incredibly well received by the drinking public and have inspired American brewers to brew their own versions with all the idiosyncrasies found in native beers to the point where America is slowly emerging as a brewing country with as much nuance, creativity, and independence in its beers.

In the end your best bet is to go to Belgium and try them for yourself, but since that is not overly realistic for many folks then I would encourage you to go out find Belgian beers and take a chance on them if you haven't already. You won't be disappointed. Beware though, some of them can be incredibly complex, challenging, but ultimately very rewarding. 

In Site News!

The big news is that we are going to pull back a bit on content production and move to a Monday, Wednesday, Friday publication schedule. As mentioned previously life has a funny way of changing priorities so until a few things work themselves out I will have less time to focus on the blog. What I can say is that hopefully the content is produced on those days has a bit more substance to it and commentary is a bit sharper and not so rushed. It will be similar with the podcast too, less but better.

As always we appreciate you stopping by and commenting. Any thoughts, ideas, or recommendations are always welcome. 

Beer links and a belated Earth Day message

This was the first image when
I searched Google for Beer Earth Day.
I don't know what it means but
I know that I like it (Original here)

We didn't have an Earth Day write up, I blame myself for missing it, but to be honest I probably would have gotten a little preachy and would have to be bludgeoned off my soapbox. So instead here is the Reader's Digest version. Being a good steward of the Earth should be a no brainer for beer drinkers. Without proper management of resources we can't make beer and as we all know without beer our civilization will fall apart. So there is your Earth day message, take care of the planet so we can continue drinking awesome beer.

In the News!

Alabama bans beer brand over dirty name on label (KJRH – NBC Channel 2)
Their loss because that is a pretty solid Founders brew.

More New Orleans restaurants improve beer offerings (NOLA.com)
I was at the Chart House in Alexandria this last weekend with my wife and her parents. The restaurant was all proud of their wine list. "The best in DC," our waiter assured us. I would have been more impressed if they would have had one local or regional beer behind the bar. Chart House fix your beer selection! Anyway good for New Orleans!

More women making and drinking beer (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)
This brewing thing used to be a woman's game a long time ago. It is good to see a re-emergence.

A Growing Wealth of Craft Beer For Houston (KUHF-FM)
Someday in the near future I'm going to have to do the brew drive through Texas.

On Tap: A battle brews over beer (Albany Times Union)
This has been a reoccurring theme for awhile. Something is going to have to give.

Enraged beer theft suspect rams minimart, flattens gas pump (kirotv.com)
Here is your weekly dose of beer crime.

Top10 spring beers (Fox News)
We could have used this last month, but it is still Spring so bock out to your heart's content. Which reminds me I never did recap March. Look for a double recap soon!

A new exhibition of Mesopotamian artefacts shows the golden history of beer drinking (The Australian)
This would be pretty cool to see. If you are hanging around Melbourne, Australia then check it out and let us know how it was!

Devil’s Backbone beer arrives in Northern Virginia (Washington Post)
Huzzah! More good Virginia beer to choose from!

A giant hop for mankind (Sydney Morning Herald)
Science!

Cold beer: Worth a million years? (Clarksville Leaf Chronicle)
We close out with a reminder to recycle those bottles folks!

In Site News!

We are in the last full week of Belgian beer month so look for one more review this Wednesday. Tomorrow you can expect my write up on the LivingSocial Beerfest event this last Sunday (Spoiler: It was wet.) Thursday I'll deliver on the other half of the Belgian beer definition that should have showed up last week. (I blame my in-laws since they were in town.)

Remember you can find Jolly Good Fellows on Facebook, iTunes, Twitter, Google Plus

Just click on the widget in the top right corner. Thanks for stopping by!

A closer look at dubbels.

We dive into the world of dubbels tonight as we continue our condensed and abbreviated Belgian beer month. So to start out, what is a dubbel? Unlike some Belgian styles this one can be fairly well defined, it is a stronger brown ale, and like the tripel it really came into its own under Westmalle. It fast became popular and other Belgian brewers were quick to copy and produce their own versions. It doesn't derive its color from the malts though instead through a carmelized syrup called candi sugar. Most of these will come in around 6.5% to 8% ABV. 


Our classic candidate is Maredsous 8º Brune. It poured a clear amberish brown color with a rich tan head that slowly dissipated leaving lacy remnants on the sides of the glass. It had a great smell to it on the pour. It is lighter than expected with a richer caramelly taste that coats the mouth eventually giving way to a mild raisin like aftertaste. It is a sweet, fruity beer but far from cloying, instead being light and crisp on the tongue with good carbonation. Decently hopped but well balanced with the rest of the beer.You would be hard pressed to find the alcohol in this though it is definitely there coming in at a respectable 8% ABV. It is best to let this beer warm up a little bit so its character comes out more. This is a very drinkable beer and would work well to introduce people to the joys of brown ales. I recommend this. 


Here is the party line on Maredsous 8º Brune.

The brown beer was originally only brewed for Christmas, but over the centuries it became a force to reckon with. Maredsous Brune (ALC . 8%) has a creamy foaming, dark, burgundy color, is easily recognizable by its expressive aroma bouquet. A generous caramel bouquet is completed with masterly fruit touches.) 

Want another take on it? Check out this write up.

Our nouveau candidate is Brother David's Double by Anderson Valley Brewing Company.This beer introduces itself first by smell, it exploded with an aroma of caramel and fruit. It poured a darker brown with little head that quickly disappeared. This is a sweeter beer than the Brune with less caramel taste and more fruitiness in the drink. Both the carbonation and the hops take a backseat to the sweetness and the fruitiness of this beer. It is bigger bodied than the Maredsous but surprisingly lifts of the palette rather quickly. In the alchohol department it is no slouch coming in at a robust 9% ABV which is more on the extreme side for this style of beer. 


Overall this is a good beer but I wouldn't toss it to a beginner. It makes no bones about its willingness to stretch the definition of a dubbel and that is part of the fault I find in it. It needs a bit more subtlety. It has a lot of things going for it, but it needs some restraint. 


Here is the party line (taken off the side of the bottle) on Brother David's Double.

Brother David's Double Abbey Style Ale is brewed in a a cloistered nook of remote Anderson Valley and may be the closest you'll ever get to Heaven on earth. This hand-crafted beer, made in very limited quantity, is malty, tangy, a little wild. It is sure to raise your spirits. The brewers of Anderson Valley have sacrificed and suffered to brew this enormously complex beer, so you can enjoy it completely guilt free. Because man cannot live on bread alone.

Want another take on Brother David's Double? Then go read this review.  

Here is our winner!

Now that we have had a few days (make that over two weeks) for people to realize or care that the Kentucky Wildcats as the winner of this year's NCAA Men's basketball tourney it is time to introduce the winner of our first annual NCAA beer tourney. We took the easy route this year, pairing up beers with their respective teams, next year we may give you a vote to see who is the popular favorite versus the one decided by an orange bouncing ball. Without further ado I present the winner:


Alltech Brewery Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale

(Original here)

Now that we have gone through that what does it all mean. Well here is the deal, over the next few months we will do the following things:

• We are going to track this down, taste, drink, and review it.
• We are going to talk to the brewers about their winner.
• We are going to visit the brewery.

If you have any insight on these things let us know in the comments. Otherwise we will keep you posted!

Beer Links for the first hot day!

It is hot out here in Virginia today, a teaser of the sweltering summer that is right around the corner. To prepare I drank the remaining bottle of last year's Shiner Ruby Redbird which by coincidence is back on the shelf at the local supermarket. 

In the News! 

If we were in the blogging game a year ago
I'm sure that would have been the metaphor.
(Original here)

The Honk Heard Round The World: Goose Island One Year After The Sale (The Chicagoist) If you read just one article on these links then this is the one! 

Beer and wine wholesalers behind legislators pushing controversial voter ID laws (The Huffington Post) Beer and Politics two things that have always been connected. 

UPDATE: AB InBev Pays $1.24B For Control Of Dominica's CND (Wall Street Journal) CND is Cerveceria Nacional Dominicana. If you have been hanging around here for awhile this is not a surprise. 

SABMiller eyes $2.5 billion in Africa investment (Reuters) Same theme different day. 

A clear favorite for beer: Beer can come in many packages (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle) Sometimes I daydream at my desk what will be the next revolutionary beer container... 

Atlanta’s craft beer scene is booming (Atlanta Journal Constitution) I was just down there last week, I did not nearly have enough time to sample the many fine selections up and coming in Georgia. 

Local brewers finding success as craft beer sales increase nationwide (annarbor.com) I think I have said this before but it is worth repeating. Sometimes I get a bit sad because I just can’t keep up with the firehose of new beer. 

Beermakes men smarter, researchers say (Winnipeg Free Press) Thank you SCIENCE! Some of my best writing comes under the influence…that’s not saying much though. 

Beer community honors memory of brewer with ale (Wausau Daily Herald by way of the Coloradoan) Very cool tribute beer for a very cool beer guy. I may have to buy an old mine for beer storage. 

In site news! 

So I was traveling last week and doing lots of home maintenance so our NCAA beer tourney winner slipped through the cracks. I'll solve that tomorrow. On Wednesday we look at more Belgian style brews, maybe Wits or Dubbels, depends how I feel when I wake up that morning. In the latter part of the week you can expect some scintillating counterpoint to Brian's take on what a Belgian beer is. There is also a rumor that we may record episode 9 this week of the Beercast so stick with us! 

As always go to the widgets in the top right corner to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google +, and Untappd. Got something to say? Then tell us in the comments because we want to hear from you. 

Thanks for stopping in!

What's a Belgian (Style Beer)?

It’s Belgian style month here at Jolly Good Fellows and we have been stoked to find all sorts of cool choices to sample.  While Skye has been working hard to figure out a way to do some cool comparisons of original to adapted Belgian styles (hey come on, he gets to drink more beer that way), I thought I would go a little different direction and quickly look at what it means to be Belgian. 

This is a sampling of a few just from Belgium.
(Original here)

Belgian style beers seem to be all the range.  A quick research trip to the local Total Wine outlet offered ample evidence that everyone seems to be brewing a “Belgian style” something.  So, again, what does it mean to be Belgian?

Now before you start worrying about who are the Walloons or the entry of the British into the First World War as a result of the Germans swinging through Belgium, we aren’t going there.  No discussion of Leopold II and the Belgian Congo.  No chocolates, no diamonds and no EU politics.  Nope, not this time.

Belgian-style beers are closely linked to the seven Trappist monasteries that are engaged in commercial brewing.  Six of these are in Belgium and one is in the Netherlands.  They were originally occupied in 1836 as the monks left France in the face of the Revolution and began selling beer in 1861.  The Trappist monks are part of the Order of the Cistercians of the Strict Observance and follow the Rule of St. Benedict.  The order was founded in 1664.

As part of the Rule of St. Benedict, the Trappist monks are allowed to sell goods to the public to support their order.  Since they have not taken a vow of sobriety, this includes their now famous ales.

Now how does this relate to Belgian style beer?  Well, Trappist is not a style, but a term of origin as only the seven Trappist monasteries are allowed to use the name or permutations of it.  (Same idea as Champagne – only sparkling wines from that region of France can be called champagne.) So by referring to “Belgian style,” commercial brewers can brew in a style similar to the Trappists, but not infringe on their intellectual property rights.

The current Belgian Trappist producers are:

• Achel, sells Blonde (8% ABV), Brune (8% ABV), Extra Blonde (8% ABV), Extra Brune (8% ABV).
• Chimay sells Red Label (dark, 7% ABV), White Label (Blonde/Tripel, ABV 8%) and Blue Label (dark, 9% ABV).
• Orval sells a "unique"^[5] dry hopped 6.2% amber beer.
• Rochefort sells three dark beers, "6" (7.5% ABV). "8" (9.2% ABV) and "10" (11.3% ABV).
• Westmalle sells Dubbel (7% ABV) and Tripel (9% ABV),
• Westvleteren sells Green Cap or Blonde, (5.8% ABV), Blue Cap (dark, 8% ABV) and Yellow Cap (dark, 10.2% ABV).

Now Belgian brewing is certainly broader than just the Trappist examples listed above, but given the rise of these breweries in and around the time of Belgian independence (1830), their seems to be a close tie. 

Ommegang's Belgian Style Pale Ale - The Tale of Foam-a-geddon 2012

After a long day at work, I was looking forward to tonight’s review of Ommegang’s Belgian Style Pale Ale, or as they term it, a BPA.  It did not disappoint.

Brewery Ommegang is located at 656 County Highway 33 in Cooperstown, NY (also home to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame).  They have a relationship with the Duvel brand of Belgian ales and advertise themselves as being a Belgian ale brewery.  I think given the last two products of theirs that I have tried, they have a good handle on the Belgian ale style and its nice that they are a little closer and more competitively priced than their native counterparts.

The brewery characterizes the beer this way:  “This fine pale ale offers citrus and tropical fruit aromatics coming from a well balanced – yet ample – hop character.  It is brewed with our own Belgian yeast, five malts, two hops and plenty of patience.  Finishing touches include dry hopping with Cascade hops and warm cellaring.”

I did a bottle pour taken directly from the fridge, so I was probably getting it slightly colder than the recommended serving temperature of 40F/5C.  It poured a thick, rich head that kept coming, coming and coming until it crested the glass and continued to grow.  The final pour took in the neighborhood of 15-20 minutes because of the thick rich foam.  Overall, I think I had about 10 of the listed 12 oz. 

Once I was finally able to get to the liquid, I found the light citrus flavors, but I wouldn’t characterize the taste as having an “ample” hop character.  It was smooth and robust, but the hop flavor was not dominant.  It has a darker golden color, mildly turbid and not quite opaque.  It has a nice nose, but it is not particularly aromatic.  Plenty of dissolved solids, as you would expect in a wheat beer and a similar texture, but the flavor is lighter.  I could see this paired with milder flavored foods or cheeses. 

Overall, the Ommegang Belgian Pale Ale (BPA) is a very good beer that I shall plan to revisit.  It has a very balanced flavor with a smooth texture and pleasant aroma.  Now if I can just get more of it into my glass…

You can follow more of my beer adventures here on Jolly Good Fellows (www.beerfellows.com), on Untappd at BSmith or on Twitter @Beeratorium.

Beer links for this second week in April!

Baseball and beer. It is a win-win combination!
(Original here at mnbeer.com)

Let's get right to it!


In the News!Beer bill gets Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant's OK (Clarion-Ledger)
Congratulations to Lucky Town and Lazy Magnolia who will get to brew some new beers. Kudos to Raise Your Pints for some successful beer activism!
Beer sales up, but Big Beer down (STLToday.com)
Someday they will wake up and realize they need to put a better product out there.

New brewery will be Baltimore’s first in over 30 years (Baltimore Sun)
BalMar's beer scene is starting to grow again.

New Samuel Adams six-pack features beers from winners of its homebrew contest (Boston.com)
This is a cool thing that Sam Adams does for the craft beer industry. I'll be tracking this sixer down.
Surly jumping on Twins' Bandwagon, new beer sold exclusively at Target Field (Minneapolis Star Tribune)
Nice touch here by Surly, I may have to check the schedule and see if the Brewers have an interleague game with them this year.

Fort Collins' second annual collaborative brew hampered by legal questions (The Coloradoan) 
A really cool project whose future may be in jeopardy.
Harpoon brews up a new addition – the Rye IPA – for its year-round beer lineup (Mass. Market)
Justin, if you are reading this you may have to track some down. Otherwise I'll bring you some next time I am in Wisconsin.

Craft brews bubble up to eager Washington fans (Washington Post)
The DC beer scene is evolving too.

BeerCity USA fever heating up: 2,000 breweries in USA (Examiner.com)
Creativity abounds! 

Bloomberg: Bud and Miller merging? (Akron Beacon Journal)
Can you imagine if this happens? A global bad beer monolith!
Forget the wine, cook with beer – and these tips on pairing (Press of Atlantic City)
I included this one for Sarah!

Doug Moe: Mad brewer is back, and he's bringing the beer (Wisconsin State Journal)
Wisconsin gets to experience the joys of Six Point!

Drunken driver arrested after crashing into beer truck (The Oshkosh Northwestern)
Hello beer crime, I've missed you.


In Site News!


I finally get around to announcing our NCAA Beer Bracket winner and what that all means, Brian will be serving up some refreshing beer reviews and commentary on Wednesday and Thursday, and we'll address Friday when we get there.


As always go to the widgets in the top right corner to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google +, and Untappd. Got something to say? Then tell us in the comments because we want to hear from you.


Thanks for stopping in!

New World & Old World...some clarification.

If I was doing this correctly
then the picture below would
look like this. (Original here)

After yesterday's review I felt a bit uneasy with how I introduced the month and where we left it. I couldn't really put a finger on it until I reread it and realized that I make a reference to a beer that may be completely unfamiliar to people.  There was no suitable point of comparison. Like I mentioned before, Belgian beers are graduate level studies. They pack in a whole lot of awesome to both taste and think through. 


So while I had no compunction doing this with other styles of beer up till this time here I feel it is necessary to have the comparison between the "nouveau" Belgian styles being brewed around the world and the classic Belgian styles being brewed in Belgium. So to remedy this we are going to try and line up the classics with the new where possible. 


So let's catch up with the original tripel , Westmalle Trappist Ale Tripel. 

Wrong glass but bigger bottle!

It poured a clear straw gold color with a light fluffy white head. This has a sweet, flowery taste with a some good carbonation to it. It is lighter than you would expect for a beer that packs a good punch at 9.5% ABV. That said you can taste the alcohol during the drink. It is more crisp than smooth with a decent bite to it. Decently hopped, it has a slight bitterness in the aftertaste but it clears off the palate fairly quickly. All that said it does drink very easily. 


If you can hold out, this is a beer that will mature gracefully over time. The label on mine said it had two years to it. I feel it could probably double that easily. There is a lot going on in the glass and it is a complex beer that will reward you for taking the time to enjoy it. 


Here is what our monk friends have to say about their brew. 

Westmalle Tripel is a clear, golden yellow Trappist beer that undergoes a secondary fermentation in the bottle (9,5% alcohol). It is a complex beer with a fruity aroma and a nice nuanced hop scent. It is soft and creamy in the mouth, with a bitter touch carried by the fruity aroma. An exceptional beer, with a great deal of finesse and elegance. And with a splendid long aftertaste. 

My god, it's full of stars! Introducing Belgian style beer month.

Welcome to Belgian beer month. This is going to be an April of beer adventure. We are embarking on advanced beer studies here. 


I've been spending the last few days on how I was going to set this month up. Here's the thing, I freely admit that I have bitten off more than I can chew with this month. Defining Belgian beers is a rather daunting task; there are so many different styles at play and every one of them is intriguing. Dubbels, tripels, oud bruins, Flemish sours, lambics, saisons, blondes, witbiers, etc...you get the picture. 


I could write a whole blog on Belgian beer and never run out of material, in fact people have! This month though we are just getting a tasting, we are going to do a very cursory overview. This is where we will run into a bit of trouble. The net we are casting will be both narrow and broad. I'll discuss the broad aspect first. Belgian style beers are now bigger than Belgium. Other brewers around the world are brewing these and doing a good job recreating the styles and adding their own flair into the mix. We are going to look at a few of them. The more contentious aspect is going to be narrowing of the scope of what Belgian beer styles we will be looking at this month. For the purposes of this overview we are limiting ourselves to dubbels, tripels, blondes, and witbiers. 


The why is simple, first off we just don't have time and second and more importantly to me, lambics, oud bruins, sours, etc. deserve more copy than I can provide them right now. We will get to them in more detail in the future. 

That is one of the best beer cans
I have ever laid eyes on.

Our candidate to kick off this month is Tallgrass Brewery's Velvet Rooster, a Belgian-style tripel ale. First a bit of background. What is a tripel you may ask. Well simply put it is strong pale ale brewed in the style made famous by Westmalle Tripel. Belgian brewers originally brewed this style back in the 1930s to take on pilsners. 


It poured a hazy golden color with a puffy white head. It is sweet to the taste with a low key bite, there is not a lot of carbonation to this, and it drinks just on the smooth side. You end up with a mildly bitter aftertaste that turns grassy at the end. Similar to a biere de garde in that aspect. This comes in at a well bodied 8.5% ABV. The alcohol doesn't show itself immediately on the drink but reveals itself in the aftertaste. One thing I noticed was as the beer warmed it seemed to morph from a tripel and by the time I finished was more like a biere de garde when I finished. Overall this isn't a bad thing but it was noticeable to me. 
This is a good effort by those Kansas brewers and worth grabbing a few cans (you read that correctly) if you can find it. 


Here is the "party line" on this beer



This beer is a Belgian Tripel that lives up to its name. Smooth and carefully crafted like a fine velvet painting, but with an 8.5% ABV this bird has some spurs! The beer pours a golden straw color with brilliant clarity. Topped with a lofty pure white head the beer has a wonderful floral nose, with subtle fruit notes. The taste is clean and crisp, with subtle fruit notes and a touch of candy like sweetness. The beer has a Champagne-like effervescent that provides a crisp offset to its sweet finish. While a pint glass is always nice, Velvet Rooster would also be at home in a tulip glass or Champagne flute. Something to crow about.



Want to go off and do some independent study? Then check out the Belgian-Beer.net, there is a lot of great info over there. Check back in and let us know what you found out. 


Have an issue about the fiasco we may turn Belgian beer month into? Let us know in the comments!

Beer Brewing - Making Beer at Home

I’m a process person. If it were the 1950s, you could bet I would be sitting at the kitchen table, taking apart a radio just to see how it works 1980s boomboxes just weren't the same...). I like understanding the world around me, especially if it involves something I love – for example, BEER.


I like understanding the history of beer and how beer is made. The best way for me to understand both is to brew beer at home. Home brewing is gaining a large popularity, especially in the Portland area. Shops like U-Brew in Sellwood and the Homebrew Exchange in Kenton allow Portland beer enthusiasts to brew at home while having the expert guidance of those who also love to brew. 

Making beer is easier with these stores (and naturally the interwebs help, too), and having homemade beer at home can be as common as it used to be. The history of beer is filled with stories of homemade beer - Thomas Jefferson and George Washington both loved beer and had it made in their homes (Monticello had special places just for beer); in fact, it was much more common to have beer at the table that was brewed onsite, than it was store purchased (or tavern purchased, since I’m sure 7-11 was not around back during our Founder Father’s time).




Making beer at home is actually much easier than I had anticipated. The Homebrew Exchange in Portland sells a “Pico Brewery Beer Kit” for $24. The kit includes everything need to beer one gallon of beer with the exception of the actual ingredients - but hark! You can buy these, too, at HBX, for only $9.00. Since this is my first time brewing beer, I do not claim to be an expert on the subject. In fact, this blog entry is more a commentary on how easy beer making is at home - I'd like to hear your commentary on how easy you find it to brew beer. Why do you brew at home? Are you a process person like me, enjoying beer more because you understand it? Or do you just love to create and drink something you find damn tasty?


Below are my pictures from my first test batch - it will take 2 weeks to ferment, but when its done I will let everybody know how it is!

Malts ready to boil. 

Malted grains boiling in water.

Malts after boiling.

Hop pellets added during the wort process.

Cooled beer has yeast added and is now fermenting.

Want to learn more about making beer? Popular Mechanics has written THIS article, which is a decent explanation.


{ prost! }

April showers us with beer links!

April is here, spring is in full swing, and we get to look at a whole new style of beers. This month is dedicated to all the delights of Belgian style brews. Before all that though, let's look at the news. 


In the News!

SaveOnBrew.Com Offers Tips For How To Save On Beer During a Recession (Houston Chronicle)

It is a press release but I think I will have to check this out and see what it says for this area. My beer spending hasn't dipped, I think it increases every month.

Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout? Wynkoop's April Fool's Day Beer (Huffington Post)

Now this is a well done April Fools joke. The funny thing is people would probably queue up to drink this. 

Austin Beer Fest Turns Into Houston Beer Fest Disaster, Redux (Houston Press)

Hey festival organizers! Pay attention, there are lessons to be learned here. 

'Beer goggles' fool women the most: Scientists discover why people are more attractive after a few drinks (Daily Mail)

SCIENCE!

Italian beers next on the craft beer scene (Nation's Restaurant News)

Soon we will be unlocking the Italian badge on Untappd. I'll just wait until I go over to visit my brother in Italy.

Brewing a love for beer... through swag (Minnesota Public Radio)

This is worth checking out!

Buy a Button, Get Beer Specials Throughout April (DCist.com)

I will be getting my button! All you DC metro people should get one too!

In Site News!

So I am in training all this week making a crazy commute so things might be light this week but you can expect an article from Sarah tomorrow on the home brewing, I'll close out Spring Seasonal month and formally introduce Belgian month, we will talk about the March Madness winnter, and we may try to record episode 9 of the JGF beercast. So stick around it is going to be an excellent month. 


Want to see the latest and greatest with the brackets? Then go here!